PC Drivers & Software

[luisdent]

I'd like to rule out software issues before I return this thing. Here's the problem:

Every. Single. Game I launch runs about 30 seconds and the jerks and/or shows visual abnormalities (spots, flickering) and then freezes for a few seconds and then crashes to the desktop with a driver timeout error. I just installed the card last night and have been troubleshooting all day.

The full story and what I've tried:

I bought this card from bhphoto as a customer returned card (so essentially new) covered by return policy and warranty for $500. Thought it was a deal worth a shot. Card indeed looks new. Installed a new power supply (I had a 430 watt lmao). Now I have a thermaltake 80+ gold 750 watt psu. pcpartpicker shows it is more than enough for my setup. I was running a 1660 super before this on my 430 watt psu with zero issue. I simply wanted better framerates for newer games at ultra settings.

So I installed everything with no issues. Before swapping the cards I removed the nvidia drivers and ran DDU in safe mode set to shutdown after install mode. swapped the card. booted. installed 6800xt adrenaline driver package full. let windows update run to be sure nothing was missing. ran games. crash. and thus began my frustrating journey. Here is everything I have tried in roughly the right order.

- updated mobo bios (rog strix 450b). tried games. games crash.
- ran amd cleanup utility
- installed one previous version behind graphics driver. games crash.
- ran cleanup again
- installed one further previous driver. games crash.
- ran registry fix to disable known multi overlay setting issue (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Dwm). rebooted. games crash.
- enabled bios setting for smart access memory (advanced pci settings >> allow 4g decoding enabled // re-size bar support enabled // disabled CSM boot option // disable fast boot). games crash.
- retried various driver versions with these updated settings. games crash.
- updated processor chipset (3600x)
- moved gpu to secondary gpu slot on mobo. verified firm seating, power cables tight. each power cable is separate port on psu. games crash.
- disabled zero rpm fan mode in gpu settings under tuning. games crash.
- set fan to max rpm (runs around 900rpm now). games crash.

I used the performance monitor and nothing seems out of the ordinary when it crashes. Temps, fan speed, etc.

Lastly, I will say, it is irrelevant what settings I use in game. I can use all low graphics settings and cap the framerate to 60 or set everything to ultra. the result is the same. the game launches, runs a brief time, starts jerking/glitching, crashes with driver timeout error. Some games do run longer than others, but they all crash.

For instance, I can run a full match or so of rocket league. max settings. 250fps easy. seems jerky at times but overall runs well. then randomly locks up and crashes. hogwarts legacy launches and shows a disclaimer and then freezes with music playing on a black screen for like 30 seconds to a minutes at least. then shows the shader progress bar. when it gets to the menu i have maybe 30 seconds to start a game or just sit at the menu before it starts showing blobs and spots flickering on the screen and then locks up and crashes.

i have been unable to play any games at all to any playable extent and i'm pretty frustrated, because it could just be a bad card, but these issues seem common on forums and i would rather not lose the awesome deal i got. but if it's a dud i don't want to be stuck with it either. any help is greatly appreciated.

my system:

ryzen 5 3600x
16gb ram
6800xt gpu
nvme ssd drives (wd blue and samsung evo)
asus rog strix 450b mobo
thermalte 80+ gold 750w psu

[luisdent]

I tried a few more graphics things to no avail, but I did find something interesting.

If I use the AMD tuning settings and throttle the GPU speed to 2200hz and the voltage to 1100 i can run something like hogwarts legacy reasonably well. the framerates suffer a bit, and it still crashes, but i don't notice visual glitches and it runs longer. Maybe a few minutes instead of 30 seconds in game... Not sure what that means, but my case is well ventilated and the fans and gpu temp seem normal. So I don't think it's overheating in the traditional sense. Not sure what this finding implies...

[Skrybe]

I was going to suggest that there was a problem with the card itself but looks like you've determined that. The fact it's every game (I'm assuming you've tried at least half a dozen) coupled with the fact turning clocks down helps pretty much confirms it. I mean I suppose it is possible that the PSU is poor quality and when the video card is at full speed it's just enough to trip the PSU. But that's more likely to just cause a complete crash/lockup than flickering and crash to desktop.

I'd be super concerned that it's a returned card basically because you have no idea what has been done with (or to) it. Maybe the previous user had it for a couple months farming bitcoin and cooked it. Or maybe they messed about and removed and replaced the heatsinks on the card. In which case it's entirely possible they've screwed up the cooling (eg: no enough or too much thermal paste). And that's before the even more nefarious stuff people do (like flashing a fake bios on a cheap/slower card swapping the stickers and returning the cheap card as the more expensive one).

Oh, and of course if the person who previously returned it was 100% above board, they may have returned it because they had similar problems. The card may have been just faulty off the assembly line and the retailer decided they'd try selling it again instead of returning it to the manufacturer.

[stokesjrj1]

1---Make sure your windows install is not corrupted

2--Run this command at a powershell administrator command prompt      DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

3--- Run this command at a powershell administrator command prompt    sfc /scannow

4---run display driver uninstaller in safe mode to clean up the amd files and registry

5---Reinstall the driver

Hope this helps and good luck

[luisdent]

I'm fairly confident it is not windows. i found that if i throttle the gpu to 2000hz it never has any glutches or crashes. I'm fairly certain the card is bad. i think I'm going to return it. It would seem there's no software issue if i can run any game indefinitely at ultra settings with the throttle in place. but i don't want a gpu that is crippled in order to run stable...

[stokesjrj1]

only time i have graphic problems with my radeons it's always corrupt windows system files it only takes a few minutes to make sure here watch this    https://youtu.be/n6mTXbVdrSY

[luisdent]

definitely think it was a faulty card. i just shipped it back. i did a ton of troubleshooting and it was acting like it was not able to run at the clock speed it was set to by default. I have since bought a new 4070 ti and it has absolutely no problems. I'm a bit disappointing as I opened a case with gigabyte as well and haven't had any reply at all, so that helped seal the deal on returning it. oh well. i'm not opposed to amd cards, but probably will stick with nvidia as the 4070 ti was the best performance/price ratio at the moment in this insane graphics card world. i got it new for $800. the 6800xt new is almost as much. so insane lately...

[cpurpe91]

I agree. Prices have been out of whack for quite a while, and it makes me sad. I was hoping to get another RX 6800 XT for a friend but within one day they went from $550 to $600 back to $800 new on sites like Newegg, and Amazon.